US President Barack Obama's visit in July for the 4th Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) places Kenya at the centre of global attention by the world's government and business leaders building on the success of last year's US-Africa Leaders' Summit.
It is intended to deepen ties between business leaders, entrepreneurs and foundations.
Kenya's leadership in innovation was key in positioning it as the first sub-Saharan African country to host the GES 2015. An overarching theme of the summit will be leveraging the power of technology for innovation and entrepreneurship - a timely conversation given Kenya's success in these fields.
Remarkably, Kenya's information technology sector could benefit from the Sh1.3 Trillion ($14 billion) committed by US businesses for Africa during last year's US-Africa Leaders Summit.
As Secretary of State John Kerry alluded, the United States has learned through its own experience that entrepreneurship is an essential driver of prosperity and of freedom.
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He added that somewhere in the world right now, there's a start-up developing a new source of clean energy, another working toward a smarter electric grid and still another devising an improved way to store all that energy.
The United States wants to help them transform these ideas into successful and sustainable ventures, and thus transform the world. This is in line with the thinking behind the concept that is Konza Techno City, a Sh940 billion ($10 billion) investment Vision 2030 flagship project designated to be Africa's Silicon Valley, projected to contribute Sh94 billion ($1 billion) annually to the country's GDP.
The verve and exuberance exhibited by the country's youth in driving innovation has been the hallmark of Kenya's globally acclaimed technological advances on the African continent. M-Pesa has placed Kenya as a global leader of innovation and adoption of mobile payment solutions.
Continuing innovation at iHub, Nailab and the more than a dozen technology hubs are churning out relevant technology solutions that are responding to local needs, reinforcing the knowledge-based economy, creating jobs and improving service delivery.
In that regard, Konza Techno City's infrastructure and governance will actively promote the establishment of ICT start-ups with the aim of encouraging digital entrepreneurs, technology businesses, and fostering innovation and entrepreneurship through the synergies of proximity to research and complementary industries.
The Global Entrepreneurship Summit will seek to complement investments and partnerships with other global entrepreneurship and tech partners with local technology institutions. Already, American high-tech companies and venture capitalists have been in the lead with increasing interest in the Konza City project in Kenya. IBM, Google, Microsoft, Intel, and General Electric (GE) have all been keen on the Smart City.
Partnerships between US and Kenyan technology enterprises under Konza City's patronage are set to establish a whole new technology marketplace, globally. Consequently, the American government through the US embassy's Economics Office has sought to secure viable opportunities for US companies.
While there exists the notion of the Technopolis, a thorough government-driven project, it was from the outset a people-driven project and eventually a partnership between the private and public sector.
Case in point, in 2012, the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology retained a team of consultants led by New York City-based HR&A Advisors, Inc. to prepare a detailed business plan and master plan for Phase 1. The Master Development Partner 1 (MDP1) team included SHoP Architects, Dalberg, Centre for Urban and Regional Planning, Denver-based OZ Architecture and Tetra Tech.
Additionally, in 2014, the government, through Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA), has committed $25m for implementation of the master plan by Master Delivery Partner 2 (MDP2), a consortium of international and local companies.
The consortium consists of 10 firms, about half from Kenya while the rest are drawn from the USA, Germany, Netherlands and UAE. Tetra Tech, a Denver company, is overseeing the development of Phase 1 of Konza City, building a world-class smart city to global standards.
Work at this stage involves preparing the city for its first commercial and resident inhabitants by installing critical underground power, water, sanitation, and fibre infrastructure by applying proven sustainability concepts that embody a secure, walkable and livable Smart City.
For a Sh940 billion project, Konza Techno City is obviously capital-intensive. It is truly the embodiment of a large scale public-private partnership project that represents a strategic opportunity to spur the growth of economic activities in Kenya with a high economic rate of return.
In the pipeline, in collaboration with the Public-Private Partnership Unit is a plan to establish a new legal framework enabling a structured, methodical and staged development of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) financing model for the city's development.
Creation of an enabling environment will serve as a catalytic opportunity for American companies to increase economic partnerships and investment in Africa, specifically cater to the Africa market while being in Africa, as opposed to accessing the African market while in Europe or the Middle East.
